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GROUP DETAILS
Created: Feb 21, 2008
Updated: Nov 27, 2009
Membership: Member Referral
Semi-Private
Topic: Future studies course for high school kids on WU
Posts (1 - 7 of 7)
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I like it!
Future studies indeed is an important and integral part of the move "toward a just and sustainable world created by communities". From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futures_studies#Education Futures education can encourage the use of concepts, tools and processes that allow students to think long-term, consequentially, and imaginatively. It generally helps students to: 1. conceptualise more just and sustainable human and planetary futures 2. develop knowledge and skills in exploring probable and preferred futures 3, understand the dynamics and influence that human, social and ecological systems have on alternative futures 4, conscientize responsibility and action on the part of students toward creating better futures. This would be an excellent course worthy of our group's effort. I just heard the name John Smart and read pages from the links you provided. He does know this subject well. Please feel free to invite him or anyone else here and develop the course Mariya. I also like the idea of initiating change by educating the younger generation via their social study teachers. It would be great if we can attract students to WiserEarth with courses like this. What needs mentioning here is the fact that WiserUniversity is still in the early phase of setup, thus we'll need to experiment using WiserEarth group features and develop methods to facilitate such online course. Will you be willing to lead the experiments in this front and create a sub-group for the "Future Studies" course Mariya? We can begin by aggregating available online resources (articles, videos, podcasts, websites, etc.) into the group. Thank you for your wonderful idea Mariya. Bowo P.S. I've created a wikipage in our group for this: Future Studies | A course proposal in WiserUniversity |
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Gentlemen, would it be wonderful if we could do just that? I agree, and I would love to lead, but I am busy saving myself at the moment, hope to have more time in a few month.
Meanwhile we can simplify process and have short term and long term plans. Something like that:
For short term plan goal would be to bring high school audience to WE web site next fall this year. Design something that will fit into existing high school curriculum and to help teachers to adopt it.
For English teachers - we could design high school essay competition on a future of “Better Earth”.
For Social Studies teachers – three 45 min. class course on a Future of American Civilization – future technology, future social structure, future value system.
The ideas could be very simple - future is like a train, approaching fast and it’s better to be prepared for it - there is not difference between individual future or country’s future – you intend it, you plan it and you make it. Life is more like a strategy game, nobody really knows the best way to the future.
Next step would be to find people who would want to invest in these projects, and already have resources that could be adopted rather then created from scratch. Maybe for start we can invite WE “educators”/teachers? What do you think?
Mariya |
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Shall I think those are good ideas.... I sent an email to John Smart but did not hear back... I wonder if NCI staff could provide a space on wiserearth for this?? is that what you linked to bowo? If NCI staff got behind the project a little bit, especially the outreach person -- I have a lot of confidence that we could use media etc. to develop the course into something that is very engaging/ relevant, and that -- like Shall says -- would draw lots of educators and young people to wiserearth.
Are there networking lists of public high school educators in the U.S. somewhere online...?
I hope to see some NCI people jump on this at some point. peace |
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This Michael Geisen, who just won the U.S. national teacher award, might be the perfect person to utilize to spread the 'wiserword' :
http://www.ccsso.org/projects/national_teacher_of_the_year/national_teachers/11782.cfm http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24371115/
He is about to take a year off from teaching in Oregon and travel around the U.S. visiting other schools. He might be an ideal canidate to raise awareness about www.wiserearth.org with educators...?... He seems like he would be excited to help... I will try to track down specific contact information -- peace |
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Well, I worked for years in the hyper-exciting world of online K-12 education back in the late 90s ... the school without walls ... and have some ideas for resources we might tap into.
First off, for getting teachers onboard:
Here's some stuff from Ferdi: "I'm serving on the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Board of Directors, and look forward to the next two years of working with this incredible group of people. Currently Kathy Schrock and I co-chair ISTE's Emerging Technologies Task Force, which is active both in RL (real life) and SL (Second Life, where I am Hodjazz Edman). I'm also launching The A-Train website, to help people develop and apply 21st Century Skills (which I've called Contemporary Literacy since the end of the 20th century ;->) My next book is Visible Thinking: Strengthening and Assessing Digital Age Learning and will be published by ISTE this fall. The Visible Thinking Process uses Inspiration to create concept maps that provide evidence of student mastery of the newly refreshed ISTE NETS for students, using curriculum units designed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. The first volume (Middle School) contains 82 activities in English, Math, Science and Geography (the ICT-Maps). Stay tuned! From the early days, when the Internet left the research/defense labs and began to reach our classrooms, I realized that the true power of the Internet was not the technology involved, but the potential it had for enhancing the relationships that are the foundation for human networking, extending the options available for everyone who learns to communicate and collaborate in this new medium. A decade and a half or more later, this truth still holds, and I'm grateful for the collaborations made possible through my work with the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and the ICT Literacy Community. Please check out the archives of our a series of webcasts ICT Literacy for All, that involved David Thornburg, John Cradler and Kathy McClaskey. In 1996, I had the pleasure and privilege of meeting David Thornburg, who interviewed me for his Perspectives on Education Program. Click here to hear..
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Interesting to observe (not fully researched observation) that “future studies” as a subject is not included in average high school curriculum in us (strange!). WEU could design the course and offer it as online training to high school social study teachers, - this will bring kids to WE site, adults will follow, WE will expand it’s community, educated people inherit the earth. ;-)
m-
p.s. John Smart is fun and generous guy, knows this subject, he would be interested to help.
http://www.accelerationwatch.com/bio_johnsmart.html